The Emotional and Physical Consequences of Birth Injuries


Birth Injury Attorney Phoenix, AZ

No one anticipates their newborn baby suffering from a birth injury. An attorney understands that such injuries not only have emotional and physical consequences, but that it can put a financial strain on the parents too. If a birth injury was due to doctor, nurse, or hospital negligence, the parents may be entitled to receiving financial retribution for what they have been through thus far. Legal professionals encourage parents who are feeling devastated, to reach out to a law office for more information about how they can help.

How Birth Injuries Happen

To have a valid case of negligence, parents must be able to bring forward key pieces of evidence that show what had led to the birth injury. Medical negligence happens when a doctor, nurse, or other personnel failed to offer a standard level of care as expected within the medical community. If you believe your doctor or another staff member was negligent, please contact an attorney right away for advice. Situations in which a birth injury occurred that was a result of medical negligence can entail:

  • Unnecessary Delay of C-Section: if the fetus is in distress, it is the responsibility of the treating doctor to usher the mother into a cesarean delivery. Other reasons for a c-section include the fetus’ heart rate has become irregular, the mother’s blood pressure has dropped, the uterus ruptured, or labor has slowed.
  • Improper Use of Birth Tools: a doctor may use forceps or a vacuum to help extract the fetus through the birth canal. These tools may be used if the mother is having trouble getting the infant out. If the vacuum or forcep is not properly used, the baby may suffer from physical and internal birth injuries, that may be either temporary or permanent. If a birth tool is used but isn’t successful, the mother should immediately undergo c-section delivery.
  • Hypoxia: during birth, the baby can get tangled in the umbilical cord, and become oxygen deprived. Doctors are trained to identify and respond urgently to hypoxia before mother or child suffer any harm. If hypoxia is not addressed with a sense of urgency, the child may sustain permanent mental and physical disabilities.

Other ways that birth injuries may happen are labor-inducing drugs were not administered correctly, the doctor didn’t run routine tests during pregnancy, the doctor failed to diagnose infections of the mother, nurses failed to properly monitor fetal distress, and miscommunication between doctor and staff.

If you are not sure whether a mistake was made during your delivery, a birth injury attorney Phoenix, AZ offers can provide information and help you decide whether pursuing a lawsuit is in your best interest. Please call a law firm before too much time passes, and evidence gets lost or destroyed.

Thank you to our friends and contributors at Rispoli Law, PLLC for their insight into personal injury claims and the emotional and physical consequences of birth injuries.